‘It’s way out of line’: Juan Williams shouts down Karl Rove for ‘secret email’ hypocrisy

Fox News contributor Juan Williams lashed out at Karl Rove over the weekend for attacking Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when Rove himself had used a secret email account to orchestrate the firing of U.S. Attorneys for political reasons when George W. Bush was president.

In 2007, the Bush White House said that it had lost millions emails that administrative officials had sent using Republican National Committee accounts. According to congressional investigators, many of those emails discussed official government business, including the firing of U.S. Attorneys who did not agree with Rove’s political agenda.

During a panel discussion on Fox News Sunday, Rove said that Hillary Clinton had used a personal email account for State Department business because she and her husband were “operating out of a sense of entitlement.”

But he dismissed comparisons to his own email scandal, saying that Democrats created a “complete circus” in 2007.

Williams agreed that Clinton’s emails should be scrutinized, but he said that Republicans were having “such a feeding frenzy” that “people think it’s way out of line.”

“You see these Republicans, ‘Email, email, email!’ When Karl was in trouble back in ’07, no press coverage!” Williams pointed out. “It was like one day [of] press coverage.”

“Juan, you are in a different reality,” Rove shot back “If you’re trying to say they were not tough on Rove, but they’re being too tough on Clinton, well, maybe it’s because she was the secretary of state and I was a White House aide, and she is violating the rules.”

“But Karl, you fired a bunch of U.S. Attorneys!” Williams observed. “Karl, if you doubt your power, let me affirm it. You were a powerful man in the Bush White House. And you were firing U.S. Attorneys! And it was a scandal.”

Rove countered that “even the Obama Justice Department did two investigations and found that there was no improper White House interference.”

“Fine,” Williams shrugged. “Jeb Bush has a private email, but you had private email. And you want to jump on Hillary Clinton.”

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David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.